Logan sat atop the Gateway Arch, wind blowing through his dark hair and threatening to push him off. The stupid tourists didn't know he was there, just above their heads, but he liked it that way. Out of the spotlight. People saw him flying all the time. People in Saint Louis knew Logan- the teen boy with a bad attitude and wings like a bird. Tourists took pictures of him, people asked for autographs of a feather to take home. Some thought he was an angel, yet his dark wings and complexion added to his attitude made the popular belief to be that he was a demon. But he never acknowledged them.
His phone rang and he rolled his eyes to answer it.
"Logan Mitchell you get down from there this instant." his mother ordered. She saw him up there- she was the only one- and hated it when he hid from her. It was most often atop the Arch, but sometimes in was on buildings or atop of electric poles.
"Mom!" he groaned. "I don't want to go to the lab today."
His mother always took him to the lab. Every other day. It was the only source of income for the family of two- Logan was too much in the limelight to get a real job and his mother just had back surgery and probably wouldn't work again. So the Missouri Biological Science Laboratory paid her thousands of dollars to take her son to the lab so they could examine him. They poked him with needles, took his blood, did reflex tests, made him angry on purpose, even cut him open once to see his organs and bones. Needless to say, Logan HATED going and his mom hated taking him, but it was necessary. Once they got a good stock of money, they stopped going.
"Look, Logie. I hate it, too. But we haven't been in a long time." she said. "And we need the money."
Logan sighed and put his phone away, simply sliding off the arch and plummeting toward the ground. A few people screamed and pointed, making everyone stop and stare at the boy who was simply falling from the arch.
He enjoyed the free-falling feeling. The feeling of weightlessness, the wind blowing through his hair, knowing that nobody else in the world (that he knew of) could do such a thing without a parachute or bungee cord.
He got to about thirty feet from the ground before his wings snapped out and carried him straight up in the air again. He considered just going back to the top of the Arch, knowing his mom was watching and it would piss her off.
Instead, he just did a loop-de-loop and banked in the grass, folding his wings up and fixing his hair as the usual crowd formed around him- touching his wings. Suddenly, an hand gripped his arm and ripped him away.
"I'm SO mad at you." his mom growled. "We're an hour late."
Logan rolled his eyes and left the crowd behind. Truthfully, he wished he could just fly in peace. Without everyone watching and awing at him. But he knew that would never happen. Besides his wings, everyone awed at his looks in general.
His hair and eyes were dark- almost black- hair wind blown to go everywhere. He was pale, but could be paler, considering how much time he spends atop tall things, close to the sun. He wasn't tall- not even six feet- but his arms, stomach, and legs were strong. He only weighed about a hundred pounds when his build suggested a hundred and fifty. His bones were hollow for flight- just like a bird. His black wings, shining purple in the light, spanned a good ten feet tip-to-tip. When folded up against his back, the tops exceeded past his head about four inches, the tips nearly reaching his knees, making them impossible to hide under any circumstances. If you looked at his bare back, you would see that the wings were attached to his spine, but branched out a little. The black feathers were embedded not only in his wings, but in the skin around the base of the wings as well. His hearing and seeing was exquisite, along with his intelligence and reflexes.
Yes, Logan Mitchell was born this way. How? Nobody knew. He was born a normal child weighing less than three pounds when born full term. Nobody could figure out why his bones were hollow- until the wings sprouted. His mother went to get the two nubs removed as soon as they appeared, but the surgeons assured her that if they removed the growths, Logan may be paralyzed forever. So they let them be, deciding they were benign, until they grew into full-fledged, operational wings. Mrs. Mitchell wouldn't let them study her son. Not til he was sixteen, when they were desperate for money.
"You're gonna get yourself shot one day. Know how much a corpse of a teen boy with wings is worth?" Mrs. Mitchell lectured in the car. "Probably a lot."
"Whatever, Mom." he grumbled. "I'm nineteen now."
"Yeah, yeah." she sighed. "But that doesn't change anything."
He rolled his eyes and sat back, watching the passing buildings and cars. It wouldn't be long til he arrived at the lab and hell could start all over again. He wasn't sure that he could do this anymore...
James sighed and popped a blackberry in his mouth. He was STARVING, having lived off of berries and stolen foods for weeks now. But it was worth it. He'd find California, even if it killed him. He had to expose himself. Become famous. Something his mother never allowed.
He was in Illinois now, in the woods, gorging himself on these blackberries growing on the bushes here. He needed a rest, anyway.
Suddenly he heard a low moan behind him, the ground beneath his bare feet vibrating as something approached him. James slowly turned, eyes growing as a giant black bear stood there, shoving berries in its mouth.
"A BEAR?" he whispered in terror, making the huge animal's attention turn to him for the first time. "Nice bear. I'll call you Pooh. You like that name?"
The bear stood on its hind legs and roared.
"So you don't like that name." he laughed, terrified. The bear fell down to all fours and advanced, James whirling around to run for dear life. The dead leaves and tree branches irritating his feet as he ran. He searched above for a break in the trees as the bear gained up on him.
"GO AWAY!" he yelled over his shoulder, having no effect on the bear.
The bear reached out with a mighty paw, grabbing out for him. But he had already jumped and unfurled his mighty ash-grey wings. The bear slashed his ankle and James cried out in pain, the bear being left below as James landed on a high branch, which the bear wouldn't be able to reach. Heck, the bear couldn't even see him now.
"FUCKING ASSHOLE!" James yelled down at it as his ankle dripped blood that landed on the bear's face. It roared up at him, making for the trunk of the tree he was in and climbing. "Well, fuck. Smart bear, aren't you, Pooh?"
James leaped from his branch, only plunging down for a few feet before his wings caught wind and brought him up. He beat his wings and broke through the barrier of branches in the forest canopy, and was free in the sky.
Gosh, but his wings were soar. He had been flying for weeks, having come from New York, where he lived for his whole life, being nineteen now.
Some might say James was just plain beautiful. He was tall- about six one or six two- and tan. Dark lashes frames beautiful hazel eyes, a little more brown than green, that seemed a little dopey, but were actually quite smart. His dark brown hair was chopped short and pushed back- an improvement he had made a while before running away from home, knowing long girlish hair would only get matted and gross on his journey. He was extremely muscular- anywhere that COULD have muscle, did. But the most beautiful part of him was his wings. Yes, wings.
They were those of a bird- a BIG, powerful bird. From tip-to-tip, they spanned about eleven feet and were so powerful that they had carried this hundred-and-eighty-or-so pound boy for weeks with only hours' breaks. They were a consistent ash grey, making him look exactly like an angel who had rolled around in a fire pit. Like Logan, they were impossible to hide. Needless to say, he didn't get out much.
And that's why he ran away.
His mom was a scientist. He was born a regular human, but years of reconstruction on Brooke Diamond's son brought him to be this. A "mutant freak who would never make it in the real world". James didn't hate his mom for it. He loved his mutation. He could FLY. But he wanted to go and show himself to the world. Go to California, maybe get some movie deals. He wanted everyone to know about him. Brooke, on the other hand, was afraid she would be arrested for doing this to her son, so didn't let him. So after years of begging and pleading, he decided to just go. Leave her behind.
Carlos swallowed hard as he and Kendall awaited their fates in the bottom of a metal lab cart. They were curled up in the bottom, invisible to the doctors everywhere. They could hear that they were close to arriving somewhere. HOPEFULLY somewhere with a window.
Kendall pressed his finger to his lips, eyes wide, as Carlos squeezed his eyes shut in fear. They were finally going to escape this hell. Be FREE. Either that, or die trying. Anything was better than the life they had been living for a year now.
The cart stopped and footsteps walked away, a door opening and closing.
Kendall closed his eyes in concentration, holding an arm out to stop Carlos from moving. He listened hard, listening for any movement or voicing of any kind. Carlos watched him. He couldn't hear anything, but then again, he didn't have the ears of a hawk.
Kendall nodded and carefully crept from the curtain, standing up in a hospital room- empty.
"Hurry up- they're probably gonna bring a patient in here soon." Kendall whispered, hurrying to the huge window as Carlos got out of the cart. He looked down, seeing that they were at least twenty stories above nothing but trees. He pried the window open as he felt Carlos approach behind him.
"Kendall... I can't fly." he whispered, terror in his eyes.
Kendall detected footsteps approaching.
"It'll come naturally. And if it doesn't, I've got your back." With that Kendall dove out the window, body forming a cross. The door began opening, and in a panic, Carlos followed.
About ten feet above the Wisconsin tree tops, Kendall allowed his magnificent wings to unfurl and lift him up toward the sky again. He tilted his left wing down, bringing him around to see a free-falling Carlos.
"CARLOS! OPEN YOUR DAMN WINGS!" Kendall called. Carlos did, but the wings, which had never caught flight before, wobbled and took him toward the trees again. Kendall sighed and folded his own wings a little to dive and catch Carlos just in time. "We'll work on it." Kendall laughed, carrying Carlos bridal style toward the sky again.
Carlos had never flown before that time. He had been surgically given his wings about a year ago, had complete control over them, but was never given the chance to FLY. Kendall, however, was given his wings at only four years old. He was taken from his mom and sister by his father- yes, his biological father had done that to him. Manually hollowed out his bones, GREW wings on him, heightened his hearing and eyesight manually, and EVERYTHING.
Kendall was tall- six one or two- with short golden hair, green eyes, and a hooked nose. His hollowed bones allowed him to only be in the early hundred pounds, instead of a hundred and seventy or so. He wasn't very muscular, but he could be strong if he needed. His huge wings were light brown and white. The feathers hugging the main bone of the wings being brown, and fading into white all the way to the bottom. He had NEVER lived a life outside of a lab since he was four.
On the other hand, Carlos was almost the exact opposite. Having been an orphan, they found him disposable. The doctors practically stitched to huge pure-white wings on him and studied him. He had control of the wings, but had never flown before. He wasn't even six feet tall, with black hair and eyes, dark skin, being of Latino decent, and the ghost of smiles and happiness in his eyes. His natural beauty added to his pure white wings suggested he may be an angel, but of course he wasn't.
"Thanks for saving me." Carlos said.
"Yeah, we you're heavy." Kendall said, wings working to keep them both in the air. "It's either nut-up or I leave you behind."
"I dunno how to fly, though!" Carlos whined.
"Okay. I'm gonna drop you." Kendall said. (They were about a hundred feet in the air). "And whenever you feel like it, just before you hit the trees, you open your wings. Really fast. And you hold them steady. They'll do the rest. But if you start to go down, you have to flap them."
"Okay." Carlos said, terrified.
"On the count of three." Kendall said. "One-"
With that, the blonde dropped his friend, sending the Latino plummeting either to his death or to his victory. He watched nervously as Carlos opened his magnificent wings and wobbled a little, then gained control and started curving to the sky. Kendall smiled and nodded. He was glad Carlos had made it. Carlos was going to make this trip fun, with his jokes and smiling, but if Carlos HADN'T succeeded, Kendall would be alone.
"Congratulations, buddy!" Kendall said, giving a thumbs up as he approached Carlos.
"What the HELL happened to two and three?" Carlos asked angrily.
"You'd be all tense and never make it if I didn't surprise you." Kendall said. "Let's GO."
So I had a million other, more important things, I could have been writing today. Instead I did this. :D I really like it- I'll try not to make it too similar to Maximum Ride. BUT I still have more important stuff to be writing, so sorry if these chapters are all spread out.
Let me know what you guys think of this! :D